Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a composite information recording apparatus for recording contents of an original to be copied in combination with information supplied from an external information source in a composite manner. More specifically, the invention concerns an original position designating apparatus for producing a signal representing the position of the original to be copied.
In general, in the recording of images in a composite manner, there may arise a case where a plurality of recordings containing the identical body of a letter such as shown in FIG. 1(a) together with different preambles (addresses or the like) and postscripts (issue numbers or the like) such as shown in FIG. 1(b) are desired with the information to be recorded in the preamble and the postscript being supplied from an external information or data source. In this case, a composite information recording apparatus such as shown in FIG. 2 can be made use of. Referring to FIG. 2, the composite information recording apparatus comprises an electric charging device 2, a developing device 3, an image transfer electrode 4, a separating electrode 5, a charge removing or neutralizing electrode 6 and a cleaning device 7 which are disposed around a light sensitive peripheral surface of a rotatable drum 1 which is commonly referred to as the light sensitive drum. Additionally, the recording apparatus includes an exposure or irradiation optical system A for projecting an image of an original carried by a copy board 8 onto the peripheral surface of the light sensitive drum 1 and a scanning/reproducing means B for impressing an information signal available from an external information source onto the peripheral surface of the light sensitive drum 1 through scanning operation. The scanning/reproducing means B may be constituted by an optical fiber tube (OFT), a thin window recording tube (TWT), a laser beam scanner or the like, for example. In order to produce a composite recording such as shown in FIG. 1(b) with the aid of the composite information recording apparatus outlined above, the portions of the original corresponding to the preamble and the postscript are covered by black cover papers or the like and disposed on the copy board so as to allow the writing irradiation through the scanning/reproducing means to be effected on the drum surface at locations corresponding to the preamble and the postscript. The time for initiating the recording by the scanning/reproducing means B as well as the time for terminating the recording are preset in an appropriate manner. Subsequently, the copying operation of the original is carried out with the preamble and postscript information being concurrently supplied from an external information source such as a memory equipment or the like to the scanning/reproducing means. The composite recording operation requires not only troublesome work in inserting and locating properly the black cover sheets but also a specific device for setting the timings for the input operation of the external information in addition to the timings for the movement of the copy board.